


To The Here & Now

by MadhouseCabaret



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-26
Updated: 2014-05-26
Packaged: 2018-01-26 15:07:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 882
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1692737
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MadhouseCabaret/pseuds/MadhouseCabaret
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rome did not have the luxury of adapting with the times. So once thrust back into the modern world he has found himself needing to play catch up, and quickly. Yet through all of this he has taken a moment to reflect on his progress over the years.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To The Here & Now

Wives didn’t always have sex with their husbands. You see that was just a fact of life, but if they were feeling cunning enough the women would take on lovers. This however had to be done completely in secret, lest they incur the wrath of their husbands. The penalty for being caught could very well lead to death after all. As for the husbands they were free to fondle, touch, kiss, go frotting and penetrate to their heart’s content. There was an obvious double standard there of which Romulus had grown accustomed. To be blatantly honest as the personification, founder and first Emperor he was the cause for many of these rules. Romulus had ensured that specific rules and regulations for both sexes were set in stone at the founding. Making absolute sure that everyone from lower class to upper class knew their duties in life. 

Slaves? Completely necessary and perfectly fine.

Goring people in an arena? Sure, why not? 

The list of atrocities as the modern era would put it was lengthy at best. Yet Rome had a part in their creation, they were his brainchild and he had grown comfortable with their being ever present. Thus imagine his surprise upon coming back to life and seeing most of the western world had moved beyond all that. In his most secret thoughts Romulus would even dare say he missed the way many things were. Now he sat comfortably at an outdoor cafe looking over the city that was once his own. Watching as the people bustled back and forth going about their daily lives. That much had not changed too much from the bygone years he had to say. 

Yet even through his nostalgia Romulus had recently taken to acclimating to the modern era. The advancements intrigued him, the music was new and strange, the languages evolved far past what he had ever thought, commerce was so much better, theater was so much stranger! The list really could go on and on when referring to things he found exciting about this new millennium. For example, Rome found that he will forever love electricity and air conditioning. Goodness would he have given his right arm for AC back in the day! 

What truly intrigued him the most? 

Well simply how people had moved past the class system the way in which they had. Oh of course there was the wealthy, the middle and the poor as always, but there were no slaves. Prostitution was illegal much to his dismay as well. That and when he did see prostitutes they weren’t exactly enticing as he remembered. Even so, keeping people against their will as servants in your own home was illegal! Never in his years did Romulus ever think that he would bear witness to something as fascinating as that. Oh yes and most strange of all, the women had rights. Upon his initial arrival back from the dead Rome had shown discontent on that note. Although he wasn’t alone with the confusion, the other nations had been alive to move through the progression, and thus they were able to adapt much more easily. 

Not Rome.

He had been very much dead and only came back to be increasingly confused. In these times if a woman had the guts to cheat on her husband she wasn’t met with death; usually. In a good chunk of western civilization Romulus noticed that she was scorned certainly but, that otherwise she was allowed to walk free after some ugly court battles. A woman could vote, she could hold important jobs, she could reserve the right to never have children, she could talk back to a man, she could hit a man if need be, so on and so forth. In the beginning the ancient would have to quietly admit he found that unbecoming, disgusting and not at all very intelligent on the part of the lawmakers. That was before his eyes started to slowly open over the coming years. No, Romulus did not ever hate women, he loved them! He had just come to hate the changes which he was never present to see transpire for himself. 

Now though Rome viewed the fairer sex with gentler eyes. He began to realize that killing a rapist simply because he ‘damaged the property’ was not a healthy way of thinking. That many women were as strong as the ones he recalled from eons ago, but now they could place that strength into positions never before opened to them. His heart now goes out to the woman who is being told she is nothing more than a breeding machine. To the struggling mother who is given less in wages simply because her parts are different. In these times the man found himself more likely to offer a helping hand than react with an eye roll. Just as he has been slowly conditioning himself to dislike ill treatment of others in general. Where he had once been okay with slavery, Romulus slowly began to understand why it is never okay to treat people like vermin.

Yes, these times were certainly alien to him. Yet he took a moment to reflect and realize that they weren’t all bad, that they were strange, but provided perhaps the eye opener he always needed.


End file.
